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The Book of Delight and Other Papers by Israel Abrahams

I >> Israel Abrahams >> The Book of Delight and Other Papers




Then said he, "Pray, if such be thy wish"; and I bathed my hands and
face, and prayed. Then I ate of all that was before me, for my soul loved
him.... Wine I would not drink, though he pressed me sore. "Wine," I
said, "blindeth the eyes, robbeth the old of wisdom and the body of
strength, it revealeth the secrets of friends, and raiseth dissension
between brothers." The man's anger was roused. "Why blasphemest thou
against wine, and bearest false witness against it? Wine bringeth joy;
sorrow and sighing fly before it. It strengtheneth the body, maketh the
heart generous, prolongeth pleasure, and deferreth age; faces it maketh
shine, and the senses it maketh bright."

"Agreed, but let thy servant take the water first, as the ancient
physicians advise; later I will take the wine, a little, without water."

When I had eaten and drunk with him, I asked for his name and his
purpose. "I come," said he, "from a distant land, from pleasant and
fruitful hills, my wisdom is as thine, my laws as thine, my name Enan
Hanatash, the son of Arnan ha-Desh." I was amazed at the name, unlike any
I had ever heard. "Come with me from this land, and I will tell thee all
my secret lore; leave this spot, for they know not here thy worth and thy
wisdom. I will take thee to another place, pleasant as a garden, peopled
by loving men, wise above all others." But I answered: "My lord, I cannot
go. Here are many wise and friendly; while I live, they bear me on the
wing of their love; when I die, they will make my death sweet.... I fear
thee for thy long limbs, and in thy face I see, clear-cut, the marks of
unworthiness; I fear thee, and I will not be thy companion, lest there
befall me what befell the leopard with the fox." And I told him the
story.

In this manner, illustrative tales are introduced throughout the poem.
Zabara displays rare ingenuity in fitting the illustrations into his
framework. He proceeds:


THE FOX AND THE LEOPARD

A leopard once lived in content and plenty; ever he found easy sustenance
for his wife and children. Hard by there dwelt his neighbor and friend,
the fox. The fox felt in his heart that his life was safe only so long as
the leopard could catch other prey, and he planned out a method for
ridding himself of this dangerous friendship. Before the evil cometh, say
the wise, counsel is good. "Let me move him hence," thought the fox; "I
will lead him to the paths of death; for the sages say, 'If one come to
slay thee, be beforehand with him, and slay him instead.'" Next day the
fox went to the leopard, and told him of a spot he had seen, a spot of
gardens and lilies, where fawns and does disported themselves, and
everything was fair. The leopard went with him to behold this paradise,
and rejoiced with exceeding joy. "Ah," thought the fox, "many a smile
ends in a tear." But the leopard was charmed, and wished to move to this
delightful abode; "but, first," said he, "I will go to consult my wife,
my lifelong comrade, the bride of my youth." The fox was sadly
disconcerted. Full well he knew the wisdom and the craft of the leopard's
wife. "Nay," said he, "trust not thy wife. A woman's counsel is evil and
foolish, her heart hard like marble; she is a plague in a house. Yes, ask
her advice, and do the opposite.".... The leopard told his wife that he
was resolved to go. "Beware of the fox," she exclaimed; "two small
animals there are, the craftiest they, by far--the serpent and the fox.
Hast thou not heard how the fox bound the lion and slew him with
cunning?" "How did the fox dare," asked the leopard, "to come near enough
to the lion to do it?"

The wife than takes up the parable, and cites the incident of


THE FOX AND THE LION

Then said the leopard's wife: The lion loved the fox, but the fox had no
faith in him, and plotted his death. One day the fox went to the lion
whining that a pain had seized him in the head. "I have heard," said the
fox, "that physicians prescribe for a headache, that the patient shall be
tied up hand and foot." The lion assented, and bound up the fox with a
cord. "Ah," blithely said the fox, "my pain is gone." Then the lion
loosed him. Time passed, and the lion's turn came to suffer in his head.
In sore distress he went to the fox, fast as a bird to the snare, and
exclaimed, "Bind me up, brother, that I, too, may be healed, as happened
with thee." The fox took fresh withes, and bound the lion up. Then he
went to fetch great stones, which he cast on the lion's head, and thus
crushed him. "Therefore, my dear leopard," concluded his wife, "trust not
the fox, for I fear him and his wiles. If the place he tells of be so
fair, why does not the fox take it for himself?" "Nay," said the leopard,
"thou art a silly prattler. I have often proved my friend, and there is
no dross in the silver of his love."


The leopard would not hearken to his wife's advice, yet he was somewhat
moved by her warning, and he told the fox of his misgiving, adding, that
his wife refused to accompany him. "Ah," replied the fox, "I fear your fate
will be like the silversmith's; let me tell you his story, and you will
know how silly it is to listen to a wife's counsel."


THE SILVERSMITH WHO FOLLOWED HIS WIFE'S COUNSEL

A silversmith of Babylon, skilful in his craft, was one day at work.
"Listen to me," said his wife, "and I will make thee rich and honored.
Our lord, the king, has an only daughter, and he loves her as his life.
Fashion for her a silver image of herself, and I will bear it to her as a
gift." The statue was soon made, and the princess rejoiced at seeing it.
She gave a cloak and earrings to the artist's wife, and she showed them
to her husband in triumph. "But where is the wealth and the honor?" he
asked. "The statue was worth much more than thou hast brought." Next day
the king saw the statue in his daughter's hand, and his anger was
kindled. "Is it not ordered," he cried, "that none should make an image?
Cut off his right hand." The king's command was carried out, and daily
the smith wept, and exclaimed, "Take warning from me, ye husbands, and
obey not the voice of your wives."


The leopard shuddered when he heard this tale; but the fox went on:


THE WOODCUTTER AND THE WOMAN

A hewer of wood in Damascus was cutting logs, and his wife sat spinning
by his side. "My departed father," she said, "was a better workman than
thou. He could chop with both hands: when the right hand was tired, he
used the left." "Nay," said he, "no woodcutter does that, he uses his
right hand, unless he be a left-handed man." "Ah, my dear," she
entreated, "try and do it as my father did." The witless wight raised his
left hand to hew the wood, but struck his right-hand thumb instead.
Without a word he took the axe and smote her on the head, and she died.
His deed was noised about; the woodcutter was seized and stoned for his
crime. Therefore, continued the fox, I say unto thee, all women are
deceivers and trappers of souls. And let me tell you more of these wily
stratagems.


The fox reinforces his argument by relating an episode in which a contrast
is drawn between


MAN'S LOVE AND WOMAN'S

A king of the Arabs, wise and well-advised, was one day seated with his
counsellors, who were loud in the praise of women, lauding their virtues
and their wisdom. "Cut short these words," said the king. "Never since
the world began has there been a good woman. They love for their own
ends." "But," pleaded his sages, "O King, thou art hasty. Women there
are, wise and faithful and spotless, who love their husbands and tend
their children." "Then," said the king, "here is my city before you:
search it through, and find one of the good women of whom you speak."
They sought, and they found a woman, chaste and wise, fair as the moon
and bright as the sun, the wife of a wealthy trader; and the counsellors
reported about her to the king. He sent for her husband, and received him
with favor. "I have something for thy ear," said the king. "I have a good
and desirable daughter: she is my only child; I will not give her to a
king or a prince: let me find a simple, faithful man, who will love her
and hold her in esteem. Thou art such a one; thou shalt have her. But
thou art married: slay thy wife to-night, and to-morrow thou shalt wed my
daughter." "I am unworthy," pleaded the man, "to be the shepherd of thy
flock, much less the husband of thy daughter." But the king would take no
denial. "But how shall I kill my wife? For fifteen years she has eaten of
my bread and drunk of my cup. She is the joy of my heart; her love and
esteem grow day by day." "Slay her," said the king, "and be king
hereafter." He went forth from the presence, downcast and sad, thinking
over, and a little shaken by, the king's temptation. At home he saw his
wife and his two babes. "Better," he cried, "is my wife than a kingdom.
Cursed be all kings who tempt men to sip sorrow, calling it joy." The
king waited his coming in vain; and then he sent messengers to the man's
shop. When he found that the man's love had conquered his lust, he said,
with a sneer, "Thou art no man: thy heart is a woman's."

In the evening the king summoned the woman secretly. She came, and the
king praised her beauty and her wisdom. His heart, he said, was burning
with love for her, but he could not wed another man's wife. "Slay thy
husband to-night, and tomorrow be my queen." With a smile, the woman
consented; and the king gave her a sword made of tin, for he knew the
weak mind of woman. "Strike once," he said to her; "the sword is sharp;
you need not essay a second blow." She gave her husband a choice repast,
and wine to make him drunken. As he lay asleep, she grasped the sword and
struck him on the head; and the tin bent, and he awoke. With some ado she
quieted him, and he fell asleep again. Next morning the king summoned
her, and asked whether she had obeyed his orders. "Yes," said she, "but
thou didst frustrate thine own counsel." Then the king assembled his
sages, and bade her tell all that she had attempted; and the husband,
too, was fetched, to tell his story. "Did I not tell you to cease your
praises of women?" asked the king, triumphantly.


IN DISPRAISE OF WOMAN

The fox follows up these effective narratives with a lengthy string of
well-worn quotations against women, of which the following are a few:
Socrates, the wise and saintly, hated and despised them. His wife was thin
and short. They asked him, "How could a man like you choose such a woman
for your wrife?" "I chose," said Socrates, "of the evil the least possible
amount." "Why, then, do you look on beautiful women?" "Neither," said
Socrates, "from love nor from desire, but to admire the handiwork of God in
their outward form. It is within that they are foul." Once he was walking
by the way, and he saw a woman hanging from a fig-tree. "Would," said
Socrates, "that all the fruit were like this."--A nobleman built a new
house, and wrote over the door, "Let nothing evil pass this way." "Then how
does his wife go in?" asked Diogenes.--"Your enemy is dead," said one to
another. "I would rather hear that he had got married," was the reply.

"So much," said the fox to the leopard, "I have told thee that thou mayest
know how little women are to be trusted. They deceive men in life, and
betray them in death." "But," queried the leopard, "what could my wife do
to harm me after I am dead?" "Listen," rejoined the fox, "and I will tell
thee of a deed viler than any I have narrated hitherto."


THE WIDOW AND HER HUSBAND'S CORPSE

The kings of Rome, when they hanged a man, denied him burial until the
tenth day. That the friends and relatives of the victim might not steal
the body, an officer of high rank was set to watch the tree by night. If
the body was stolen, the officer was hung up in its place. A knight of
high degree once rebelled against the king, and he was hanged on a tree.
The officer on guard was startled at midnight to hear a piercing shriek
of anguish from a little distance; he mounted his horse, and rode towards
the voice, to discover the meaning. He came to an open grave, where the
common people were buried, and saw a weeping woman loud in laments for
her departed spouse. He sent her home with words of comfort, accompanying
her to the city gate. He then returned to his post. Next night the same
scene was repeated, and as the officer spoke his gentle soothings to her,
a love for him was born in her heart, and her dead husband was forgotten.
And as they spoke words of love, they neared the tree, and lo! the body
that the officer was set to watch was gone. "Begone," he said, "and I
will fly, or my life must pay the penalty of my dalliance." "Fear not, my
lord," she said, "we can raise my husband from his grave and hang him
instead of the stolen corpse." "But I fear the Prince of Death. I cannot
drag a man from his grave." "I alone will do it then," said the woman; "I
will dig him out; it is lawful to cast a dead man from the grave, to keep
a live man from being thrown in." "Alas!" cried the officer, when she had
done the fearsome deed, "the corpse I watched was bald, your husband has
thick hair; the change will be detected." "Nay," said the woman, "I will
make him bald," and she tore his hair out, with execrations, and they
hung him on the tree. But a few days passed and the pair were married.


And now the leopard interlude nears it close. Zabara narrates the
_dénouement_ in these terms:


THE LEOPARD'S FATE

The leopard's bones rattled while he listened to this tale. Angrily he
addressed his wife, "Come, get up and follow me, or I will slay thee."
Together they went with their young ones, and the fox was their guide,
and they reached the promised place, and encamped by the waters. The fox
bade them farewell, his head laughing at his tail. Seven days were gone,
when the rains descended, and in the deep of the night the river rose and
engulfed the leopard family in their beds. "Woe is me," sighed the
leopard, "that I did not listen to my wife." And he died before his time.


THE JOURNEY BEGUN BY JOSEPH AND ENAN

The author has now finished his protest against his visitor's design, to
make him join him on a roving expedition. Enan glares, and asks, "Am I a
fox, and thou a leopard, that I should fear thee?" Then his note changes,
and his tone becomes coaxing and bland. Joseph cannot resist his
fascination. Together they start, riding on their asses. Then says Enan
unto Joseph, "Carry thou me, or I will carry thee." "But," continues the
narrator, Joseph, "we were both riding on our asses. 'What dost thou mean?
Our asses carry us both. Explain thy words.'--'It is the story of the
peasant with the king's officer.'"


THE CLEVER GIRL AND THE KING'S DREAM

A king with many wives dreamt that he saw a monkey among them; his face
fell, and his spirit was troubled. "This is none other," said he, "than a
foreign king, who will invade my realm, and take my harem for his spoil."
One of his officers told the king of a clever interpreter of dreams, and
the king despatched him to find out the meaning of his ominous vision. He
set forth on his mule, and met a countryman riding. "Carry me," said the
officer, "or I will carry thee." The peasant was amazed. "But our asses
carry us both," he said. "Thou tiller of the earth," said the officer,
"thou art earth, and eatest earth. There is snow on the hill," continued
the officer, and as the month was Tammuz, the peasant laughed. They
passed a road with wheat growing on each side. "A horse blind in one eye
has passed here," said the officer, "loaded with oil on one side, and
with vinegar on the other." They saw a field richly covered with
abounding corn, and the peasant praised it. "Yes," said the officer, "if
the corn is not already eaten." They went on a little further and saw a
lofty tower. "Well fortified," remarked the peasant. "Fortified without,
if not ruined within," replied the officer. A funeral passed them. "As to
this old man whom they are burying," said the officer, "I cannot tell
whether he is alive or dead." And the peasant thought his companion mad
to make such unintelligible remarks. They neared a village where the
peasant lived, and he invited the officer to stay with him overnight.

The peasant, in the dead of the night, told his wife and daughters of the
foolish things the officer had said, though he looked quite wise. "Nay,"
said the peasant's youngest daughter, a maiden of fifteen years, "the man
is no fool; thou didst not comprehend the depth of his meaning. The
tiller of the earth eats food grown from the earth. By the 'snow on the
hill' is meant thy white beard (on thy head); thou shouldst have
answered, 'Time caused it.' The horse blind in one eye he knew had
passed, because he saw that the wheat was eaten on one side of the way,
and not on the other; and as for its burden, he saw that the vinegar had
parched the dust, while the oil had not. His saying, 'Carry me, or I will
carry thee,' signifies that he who beguiles the way with stories and
proverbs and riddles, carries his companion, relieving him from the
tedium of the journey. The corn of the field you passed," continued the
girl, "was already eaten if the owner was poor, and had sold it before it
was reaped. The lofty and stately tower was in ruins within, if it was
without necessary stores. About the funeral, too, his remark was true. If
the old man left a son, he was still alive; if he was childless, he was,
indeed, dead."

In the morning, the girl asked her father to give the officer the food
she would prepare. She gave him thirty eggs, a dish full of milk, and a
whole loaf. "Tell me," said she, "how many days old the month is; is the
moon new, and the sun at its zenith?" Her father ate two eggs, a little
of the loaf, and sipped some of the milk, and gave the rest to the
officer. "Tell thy daughter," he said, "the sun is not full, neither is
the moon, for the month is two days old." "Ah," laughed the peasant, as
he told his daughter the answers of the officer, "ah, my girl, I told you
he was a fool, for we are now in the middle of the month." "Did you eat
anything of what I gave you?" asked the girl of her father. And he told
her of the two eggs, the morsel of bread, and the sip of milk that he had
taken. "Now I know," said the girl, "of a surety that the man is very
wise." And the officer, too, felt that she was wise, and so he told her
the king's dream. She went back with him to the king, for she told the
officer that she could interpret the vision, but would do so only to the
king in person, not through a deputy. "Search thy harem," said the girl,
"and thou wilt find among thy women a man disguised in female garb." He
searched, and found that her words were true. The man was slain, and the
women, too, and the peasant's daughter became the king's sole queen, for
he never took another wife besides her.


THE NIGHT'S REST

Thus Joseph and the giant Enan journey on, and they stay overnight in a
village inn. Then commences a series of semi-medical wrangles, which fill
up a large portion of the book. Joseph demands food and wine, and Enan
gives him a little of the former and none of the latter. "Be still," says
Enan, "too much food is injurious to a traveller weary from the way. But
you cannot be so very hungry, or you would fall to on the dry bread. But
wine with its exciting qualities is bad for one heated by a long day's
ride." Even their asses are starved, and Joseph remarks sarcastically,
"Tomorrow it will be, indeed, a case of carry-thou-me-or-I-thee, for our
asses will not be able to bear us." They sleep on the ground, without couch
or cover. At dawn Enan rouses him, and when he sees that his ass is still
alive, he exclaims, "Man and beast thou savest, O Lord!" The ass, by the
way, is a lineal descendant of Balaam's animal.

They proceed, and the asses nod and bow as though they knew how to pray.
Enan weeps as they near a town. "Here," says he, "my dear friend died, a
man of wisdom and judgment. I will tell thee a little of his cleverness."


THE DISHONEST SINGER AND THE WEDDING ROBES

A man once came to him crying in distress. His only daughter was
betrothed to a youth, and the bridegroom and his father came to the
bride's house on the eve of the wedding, to view her ornaments and
beautiful clothes. When the bride's parents rose next day, everything had
vanished, jewels and trousseau together. They were in despair, for they
had lavished all their possessions on their daughter. My friend
[continued Enan] went back with the man to examine the scene of the
robbery. The walls of the house were too high to scale. He found but one
place where entry was possible, a crevice in a wall in which an orange
tree grew, and its edge was covered with thorns and prickles. Next door
lived a musician, Paltiel ben Agan [or Adan] by name, and my late friend,
the judge, interviewed him, and made him strip. His body was covered with
cuts and scratches; his guilt was discovered, and the dowry returned to
the last shoe-latchet. "My son," said he, "beware of singers, for they
are mostly thieves; trust no word of theirs, for they are liars; they
dally with women, and long after other people's money. They fancy they
are clever, but they know not their left hand from their right; they
raise their hands all day and call, but know not to whom. A singer stands
at his post, raised above all other men, and he thinks he is as lofty as
his place. He constantly emits sounds, which mount to his brain, and dry
it up; hence he is so witless."

Then Enan tells Joseph another story of his friend the judge's sagacity:


THE NOBLEMAN AND THE NECKLACE

A man lived in Cordova, Jacob by name, the broker; he was a man of tried
honesty. Once a jewelled necklet was entrusted to him for sale by the
judge, the owner demanding five hundred pieces of gold as its price.
Jacob had the chain in his hand when he met a nobleman, one of the king's
intimate friends. The nobleman offered four hundred pieces for the
necklet, which Jacob refused. "Come with me to my house, and I will
consider the price," said the would-be purchaser. The Jew accompanied him
home, and the nobleman went within. Jacob waited outside the gate till
the evening, but no one came out. He passed a sleepless night with his
wife and children, and next morning returned to the nobleman. "Buy the
necklace," said he, "or return it." The nobleman denied all knowledge of
the jewels, so Jacob went to the judge. He sent for the nobles, to
address them as was his wont, and as soon as they had arrived, he said to
the thief's servant, "Take your master's shoe and go to his wife. Show
the shoe and say, Your lord bids me ask you for the necklace he bought
yesterday, as he wishes to exhibit its beauty to his friends." The wife
gave the servant the ornament, the theft was made manifest, and it was
restored to its rightful owner.


And Enan goes on:

THE SON AND THE SLAVE

A merchant of measureless wealth had an only son, who, when he grew up,
said, "Father, send me on a voyage, that I may trade and see foreign
lands, and talk with men of wisdom, to learn from their words." The
father purchased a ship, and sent him on a voyage, with much wealth and
many friends. The father was left at home with his slave, in whom he put
his trust, and who filled his son's place in position and affection.
Suddenly a pain seized him in the heart, and he died without directing
how his property was to be divided. The slave took possession of
everything; no one in the town knew whether he was the man's slave or his
son. Ten years passed, and the real son returned, with his ship laden
with wealth. As they approached the harbor, the ship was wrecked. They
had cast everything overboard, in a vain effort to save it; finally, the
crew and the passengers were all thrown into the sea. The son reached the
shore destitute, and returned to his father's house; but the slave drove
him away, denying his identity. They went before the judge. "Find the
loathly merchant's grave," he said to the slave, "and bring me the dead
man's bones. I shall burn them for his neglect to leave a will, thus
rousing strife as to his property." The slave started to obey, but the
son stayed him. "Keep all," said he, "but disturb not my father's bones."
"Thou art the son," said the judge; "take this other as thy lifelong
slave."


Joseph and Enan pass to the city of Tobiah. At the gate they are accosted
by an old and venerable man, to whom they explain that they have been on
the way for seven days. He invites them to his home, treats them
hospitably, and after supper tells them sweet and pleasant tales, "among
his words an incident wonderful to the highest degree." This wonderful
story is none other than a distorted version of the Book of Tobit. I have
translated this in full, and in rhymed prose, as a specimen of the
original.

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